Mr. James Egan:

This presentation is crazy and I hope it is clear to all the members. Some 100,000 illegal boilers have been installed since the regulatory system was introduced in June 2009. We are deeply concerned about this and believe lives are at risk. Some of the potential accidents could kill. The market is awash with illegal operators and there is a loss of revenue to the State as a consequence. It is driving legitimate operators out of business. These are the main three points we would like to get across.

In 2012, it was suggested to us by the chairman of Register of Gas Installers of Ireland, RGII, and it was discussed with the CER that we should look into the number of boilers sold in Ireland. In 2012, Mr. Dermott Jewell carried out an independent survey and contacted the main six brands. There are probably ten or 15 but, as with every industry, the main ones are fewer in number. When Mr. Jewell contacted the six main boiler brands, he discovered they sold 27,500 boilers in 2011.

Under legislation, the CER has responsibility for putting in place what is supposed to be a comprehensive system of safety. In June 2009, it set up RGII, whose remit is to regulate registered gas installers. With regard to the investigation of complaints made to it, it is not responsible for identifying illegal works or installers. This is a fundamental flaw in the system. We believe no one takes responsibility for proactively identifying illegal works and operators. The system is not like that in Northern Ireland where the inspector actively looks for people who are doing illegal works. If necessary, he will call to their home, mark the cards, camp outside or do whatever must be done.

For over three years, the APHCI has been talking to the CER and RGII about the scale of illegal and black-market operations. In 2014, after years of denying the problem, the CER acknowledged to the APHCI that action was needed. Despite this acknowledgement, we feel nothing has really happened since, and little action has been taken. The CER produced a decision paper recently entitled Regulation of the Gas Installer Industry with respect to Safety from 2016. In 2016 the RGII’s tender will have expired. It may be reappointed then, or some other body might be. That is why 2016 is the year listed. In the document, which was published last November or December, the CER expressed the view that, in general, the scheme has worked effectively to regulate gas installers from a safety perspective. We found, after working with it for a long time, that this was just unacceptable. We invested considerable time in seeking change but saw there would be none and that there would be another seven years of the same conditions.

There are 30,000 gas boilers sold each year. Some 12,000 of these are certified. It is legally required by the legislation that they be certified.

By law, the certificates are supposed to be returned to the RGII within ten days.

By comparison, the number of registered gas installers in Northern Ireland is 2,000. On 13 February, the number of registered gas installers in the Republic of Ireland was 2,775. The market in the Republic is obviously far bigger than that in Northern Ireland. In its 2009 tender document, the CER said there were 4,984 gas installers in the Republic. There are 650,000 gas customers in the Republic and fewer than 6,000 boiler replacement certificates are returned to the RGII each year. This means that a gas boiler is being replaced, on average, once every 108 years.

The CER published a report for the Minister on safety cut-offs and disconnections. According to the report for 2011, two years after the scheme came in, safety disconnections were up 133%. Safety disconnections occur where somebody has a problem in their home. When they telephone Bord Gáis networks, which is now called Gas Networks Ireland, somebody calls out to them within 25 minutes. If they find a problem internally in the house they will safely disconnect.

An independent public inquiry needs to be set up to finally establish the facts. We need proactive policing, not advertising. The CER will say that it advertises about carbon monoxide and about always using a registered gas installer. In theory that is great, but in practice we need inspectors to proactively seek illegal operators and illegal works. A systematic approach is required to tackle the 18,000 uncertified boilers that are sold annually.

We need to have sufficient penalties for those who break the law. Since 2009, there have been about ten or 11 prosecutions. The majority of those prosecutions, as far as I am aware, have been given the Probation Act. Their names have not been published and they have received fines in the region of €250. It is laughable because it encourages people not to register. At the end of the process, that person can still become registered. There is nothing to stop them from becoming registered, even during the prosecution.

Someone needs to take responsibility for the seriousness of what is happening. Legislation is required on the sale of boilers only to registered gas installers. Every boiler that is produced and brought into this country has a unique reference number, which can be traced by the manufacturers. It is possible for that number to be taken by a supplier, when it is sold over the counter, and put into the system. That can then be followed up through the installer to ensure the certificate was issued and where that boiler was installed. From that information, inspections could be carried out in people's homes. The system is there to do it.

As regards random inspections, at the moment registered gas installers are inspected once a year. It is done by appointment and they get to choose where they meet the inspector. No one from RGII is going out to look for illegal workers outside that system. No home should be insured unless it has certification for the gas boiler. This is already the case with alarms and others such items.

We first brought this matter to public attention in 2012, yet three years later nothing has really changed. The current system is not fit for purpose. A recent survey of registered gas installers, which closed six days ago, showed that 98% said they have no confidence in the CER or the regulatory system. Some 95% said they had no confidence in the RGII, and 98% said they would like an independent public inquiry. The system simply allows illegals to go unhindered with little or no chance of being prosecuted.

We issued the survey at 3 p.m. on 5 February and two hours later we had received 31 replies. Each survey comes back with an IP address. It was a requirement of the survey, but was not compulsory in that one could still complete the survey without completing a couple of parts of it. We asked for the RGII number, name and telephone number so that we could identify who voted. The 31 replies had nothing on them. They were in favour of the system. When we looked up the IP address online it turned out to be RECI's IP address. The RGII is a subsidiary of RECI. The following morning a further 81 similar replies were received. For obvious reasons these have been removed from the survey. They were invalid because they did not have a person's name on them, but it illustrates the point.

A level playing field must be achieved with a proactive approach to finding illegals. We want the JLC to provide an independent consultant to investigate the regulatory system.

That concludes my presentation, which I hope was clear.